


A Quiet Kind of Heaven

by mechafly



Category: Bleach
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-08-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25971943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechafly/pseuds/mechafly
Summary: There once was a beautiful fic called 'Brown Leafed Vertigo' by foxflare, which brought much poetry and comfort into the lives of its readers. Unfinished, it received its last update in 2010.Ten years later, the world of the fic is still alive and well in the imaginations of its readers.-When the lockdown hits, Byakuya and Renji are confronted by the obvious choice to spend the isolation period together. After all, Renji lives in the crowded All Souls orphanage, and Byakuya lives a huge house with only Rukia for company. But the two of them would never overstep the boundaries of their precarious relationship by suggesting it. It's an oblivious Rukia who forces the issue by coming up with the idea all by herself as a way to have a friend in the house. She slowly realises that her unlikeable older brother and her best friend get on better than she'd thought, and she's feeling like a third wheel... as Byakuya and Renji keep their relationship a secret from an increasingly pissed-off Rukia.
Relationships: Abarai Renji/Kuchiki Byakuya
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	A Quiet Kind of Heaven

**Author's Note:**

> Go read 'Brown Leafed Vertigo' by foxflare, which sets up the whole world and the start of the relationship beautifully: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/4234158/1/Brown-Leafed-Vertigo (also on LJ at https://foxflare.livejournal.com/916.html)

"You have all those bigshot buddies in government, I thought," Renji says, when Byakuya professes to be as in the dark as everyone else about the new pandemic.

Byakuya's a curled up shape at the long end of the sofa in his smaller living room, the one stuffed with books. There's a book, open, unread, in his lap. He is lost in thought. Renji, stretched out on the length of the sofa despite Byakuya's express forbidding of lying on the furniture, prods him with his foot.

Byakuya frowns at him mildly. "This isn't some great conspiracy."

"So you're telling me you wouldn't be the first to hear before anyone else if there's a government-imposed lockdown?" Renji shakes his head. His own book, a college prep textbook, rests flat against his chest.

"You read too much science fiction," Byakuya says, opening his book again. Renji decides not to comment on the fact that _IQ84_ , Byakuya's reading of choice, _is_ science fiction, despite all its literary fashionableness. He has a test to prep for.

***

It's only the next day when Byakuya calls Renji to tell him that he might not need to prep for that test after all. "I'm afraid that it's looking increasingly inevitable that schools will close in the next few weeks." Renji's ear is glued to the phone. He doesn't even have Byakuya saved under his own name. It's too risky, which is why Byakuya rarely messages him. He's _never_ called Renji before.

"Is that from your friends in government?" Renji teases. He's in his room at home and his room-mate has disappeared, probably chasing his latest crush. He stretches out on the bed and scratches his stomach. It's nice to hear Byakuya's voice.

That voice takes on the mildest of annoyance. "I can see the way the wind lies and form my own conclusions using sense, Renji." There's an accusation lingering in there somewhere.

"It just seems so ridiculous," Renji protests. "We still gotta do our exams."

"I know." Byakuya's response is pained. Perhaps it's occurred to him, as it has to Renji, that without school, they may not see each other as frequently as before.

"I'm supposed to be submitting college applications," Renji continues.

It's not new information to Byakuya, who's been helping Renji with his college choices and listening to iterations of his college essay for months now. Renji has, in fact, applied to Byakuya's alma mater even though he's sure he'll never get in. But Byakuya just repeats, "I know," and then, "I have to go." Renji can hear Rukia's voice in the background, plaintive and tense.

"Later." Renji forces his voice to be breezy, adult, professional, and not to blurt out, "I love you," though the sudden threat of forced distance makes him tense. Byakuya clicks off the call before Renji can change his mind.

***

\-- Yo.

It's Rukia. Renji is supposed to be listening to Aizen lecture them about germ safety at breakfast but he hunkers down and taps open his phone screen.

\-- Yo. What's up?

\--Sooooooo... what are y'all doing at All Souls re: isolating?

\--Just staying in as much as poss, I guess. You?

\--Trapped in the house with my brother. YUCK.

Renji doesn't have it in him to be sympathetic. Byakuya's house is enormous, bigger than anything Renji's ever known. It's a kind of paradise to him, a place where he feels temporary access to a kind of grace. Of course, that's because it's _Byakuya's_ house. He likes Byakuya. He loves Byakuya. So the house and the man himself are inextricably linked: both are icy, overwhelmingly elegant yet unexpectedly comfortable. He never feels at ease anywhere except at Byakuya's house, sitting on Byakuya's sofa scratching out his school essays, Byakuya doing shit like playing classical music or drinking wine like the absolute cliche he is. The warm expanse of Byakuya's bed. It's so different from the orphanage that he might as well live two completely different lives.

The other day, the March weather was beginning to turn fine, and Byakuya took his glass of wine and his book and went outside into the garden. Some early-flowering cherry blossom in the street outside was losing all its petals in a spring breeze, and they all blew into Byakuya's garden. Renji was working on some assignment or another, but all he remembers is being distracted by the sunlight on Byakuya's damask skin and the perfume of the petals in the air. It had all felt so temporary.

He's an orphan, and a street rat. Shit is always temporary. But even he couldn't have predicted a pandemic and the necessary social shutdown which follows it. It's only appropriate, he thinks, that he's stuck in a house with fifteen other kids, and Byakuya will be in that garden reading his book in the March sun.

Rukia will be there too, scowling at everything.

\--Will Aizen let you stay with friends?

\--What? Renji replies, thinking of Yumi and his bachelor pad. --No. We're the orphanage's responsibility.

\--What if it's a responsible member of the society, associated with the school?

\--What are you talking about?

\--Here! If I make my brother offer to keep you here! You can just say it's educational or something. I'm just gonna go totally apeshit if I have to be stuck with him.

Renji gets a glance from Aizen at the dinner table so he pockets the phone.

The next thing he knows, later that evening, Aizen is at his bedroom door, informing him that he has permission to go stay with Kuchiki-sensei and his best friend Rukia Kuchiki if he would like; it would be good for him to continue his college prep, and generous of his friend to offer. Aizen has no worries on the score of Kuchiki-sensei's ability to be responsible for an extra child, given his position at the Academy. Renji stammers a thanks and is confronted with his closet and his backpack, which isn't even going to fit all his college prep textbooks.

\--We're bringing the car around this evening!

Renji is suddenly inexplicably nervous. It's even worse when Byakuya is dead silent in the driver's seat, while Rukia talks and talks. He needs to reassure Byakuya that this wasn't _his_ idea, even though it appears that way. _He_ would never impose on Byakuya's oasis of calm and privacy. They get Renji moved in. Byakuya gives them food for dinner and retreats. Renji watches him go. Rukia talks about how great lockdown is going to be together, how fun. Renji has never been so uncomfortable in his whole life.

***

"You're quiet," Renji says. Byakuya is drinking in his study and has not said a word when Renji greets him.

"Is that surprising?" Byakuya meets his eyes. He's angry, but it melts away like snow before it can expressed. It's so typical of the man that Renji shakes his head.

He lingers by the door, crossing his arms. "I didn't come up with this idea, okay? And I'm sorry. For invading your space. Inadvertently. I promise I'll be quiet, and, uh, inobtrusive."

Byakuya eyes all seven feet of Renji. "I doubt you'll manage that. But that's not why I'm... that's not. A problem. I'm glad you're here."

Renji stands up straighter. "You are?"

"Of course." Byakuya glares at him. "My wife died from viral pneumonia. I'd much rather you were here, safe, where I can..." He spreads his palms out on the oak surface of the desk and falls silent.

Renji feels stricken. "I didn't know." He shuts the door behind him and, despite Byakuya's stern expression, bends down and kisses him briefly. Byakuya's expression softens. "You're worried?" Renji says.

Byakuya heaves a sigh and allows Renji to pull him closer. "Rukia has asthma, the same as my wife did. She shouldn't have even come out today, but she insisted." Renji strokes his hair with its fine silken strands. "I'm glad you're here," Byakuya repeats, closing his eyes.

"I love you." This time Renji has been unable to stop himself. Byakuya is a warm weight against his chest.

Byakuya blinks at him with this pale grey eyes that reveal so little. "I know."

Renji grins at him. "Oh you do, do you?"   
  
  


***

**Author's Note:**

> In the tradition of the original fanfic, this will remain... unfinished!


End file.
